Star Wars: Saviors of the Broken

Chapter XXVII

"If home is where the heart is, then we're all just fucked." - Pete Wentz, scrawled in the margins of his copy of Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters

It felt like barely any time had gone by at all since the Horseshoe Crab left Truwel, but somehow, they were already approaching Chadhillit. Mikey had spent most of the flight sleeping, listening to music, and reading Pete's copy of Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters. Sometimes, he got to hang out with Pete, but his short, eyeliner-clad friend spent most of his time with Patrick, whining to him about nothing and everything all at once. He still didn't quite understand what was going on between them, but he was sure that this was better than being a third wheel to Frank and Gerard for the whole flight. He couldn't even imagine what Ray must be going through.

Mikey looked out the window, and in the distance, he saw Chadhillit. It was a huge, bright blue planet, orbited by dozens of rocky moons. Sometimes, he saw flashes of orange and yellow on the planet's surface, and he wondered what was going on. Maybe they were volcanoes or storms, or maybe his eyes were deceiving him. He looked to his crewmates, curious as to what they thought of this strange, alien planet.

"We've got to get a closer look," Joe said.

"What if Frank's right?" Patrick said. "What if it's not safe?"

"I'm sure it's fine," Joe said. "We just need to figure out where to land."

Joe steered the Y-wing closer to Chadhillit, but as he drew closer, the crew only became more worried. The yellow flashes weren't volcanoes or storms at all: they were bombs going off, and they were everywhere. There were starfighters constantly going back and forth between the planet and its moons, firing on each other, bombing every city in the system. There was a war going on, between Chadhillit and its moons, and there was no end in sight.

Worst of all, there were Imperial ships here too. Frank had mentioned that the Chadhillit system had been a part of the Republic, so it only made sense that it was part of the Empire now, but Mikey was still shocked to see TIE fighters and Star Destroyers orbiting the planet, keeping their distance but making their presence known. The four of them couldn't have picked a worse planet to go to. There was no way they would be safe here.

"Okay, you guys are right," Joe said. "We should go somewhere else."

"I can't believe Frank grew up here," Pete said. "That must have been rough."

"What's the next closest planet?" Joe said.

"Rugosa, I think," Patrick said.

"Maybe we should go there," Joe said.

"I don't know," Pete said. "Maybe we shouldn't randomly fly around the galaxy. Maybe we should pick a hiding place and stick with it."

"I don't want to go too far from Truwel though," Joe said. "We can't help the Rebellion if we're on the other side of the galaxy."

"Let's face it," Pete said. "Truwel's a lost cause. We need to find somewhere that's safe for us."

"Truwel's not a lost cause!" Joe exclaimed. "We can still take it back!"

"The Empire's already taken over."

"We've beaten them before. We can beat them again."

"Can you two please stop arguing?" Patrick said. "We need to figure out where we're going."

"Maybe we could meet Gerard, Frank, and Ray on Kriselist?" Mikey suggested.

"That could work," Joe said, and Pete and Patrick agreed. Joe took control of the ship, and he started setting the coordinates for Kriselist. However, when Mikey looked out the window, he spotted a strange-looking ship heading straight for the Horseshoe Crab. "I have a bad feeling about this," he said.